The leaders of the Democratic Party must be honest about the real effects of immigration

There are about 50 million foreign-born people in the United States. In a nation of about 330 million, that is around 14 percent of the population. That is a sharp rise from around 5 percent in 1970. Since 2001 nearly 1 million legal immigrants have entered the US each year.

I can imagine in broad strokes how liberals would interpret these statistics.

Socially, it’s all good. Immigrants bring creative energy and enrich our cities with cultural diversity. Economically, even better. Economists say immigrants add much more to our economy than they subtract. Immigrants come in, and the GDP goes up.

And morally? Most liberals, including myself, were equal parts appalled and ashamed at the rhetoric used by the former president around non-white immigrants. We are probably angry now at the Biden administration’s fumbling of the border crisis last year.

Even with new instructions for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, a Biden-led ICE still managed to detain about 1.7 million unauthorized migrants in 2021. This was twice as many detained from the year before. This is unconscionable given the harsh treatment of detainees and how families separated.

Rather than restricting immigration, we should allow more immigration and allow immigrants to infuse this country with their youth, work ethic, creativity and culture.